Former police chief detained by anti-corruption police

PR dla Zagranicy

Victoria Bieniek
16.05.2018 14:59

A former police chief and two top officials from Poland’s Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) were detained on Wednesday on suspicion of revealing information about ongoing criminal cases, investigators said.

The prosecutor's office in Rzeszów, southeastern Poland, where Zbigniew M. was to be taken for questioning. Photo: PAP/Darek Delmanowicz.

The police chief, oficially identified only as "Zbigniew M", and former heads of CBA regional offices in Łódź, central Poland, and Poznań, western Poland, are also suspected of divulging information about planned police activities, the PAP news agency reported.

National police commander Zbigniew Maj quit in February 2016 after less than two months in the job, claiming former police officers were putting together a sting operation to discredit him.

According to media reports at the time, this could have been connected to allegations that Maj had been blackmailed by an informer more than ten years earlier.

Maj allegedly accepted from the informer five bottles of alcohol as a bribe and a loan of PLN 10,000 (EUR 2,300) which he failed to return.

Beata Mazurek, a spokeswoman for Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice party, urged people not to be fooled by “opposition propaganda” which had suggested that the former police chief's detainment was politically motivated, adding that “everyone is equal under the law” and there are no “sacred cows.” (vb/pk)